Given the success of Novo Nordisk, is there a “Nokia risk” for Denmark?

This week, 60 Minutes traveled to Denmark to report on Novo Nordisk, the pharmaceutical company behind the popular drugs Wegovy and Ozempic.

Novo Nordisk's success with these drugs has led to huge profits: its current market capitalization is larger than Denmark's entire GDP.

Novo Nordisk's outsized profits have also led to a surge in tax revenue. Last year the company paid $2.3 billion in income taxes to the Danish government.

“It is hard to overestimate the impact of Novo Nordisk, as well as Ozempic and Wegovy, on the Danish economy,” correspondent Jon Wertheim told 60 Minutes Overtime.

Wertheim interviewed Mads Krogsgaard, CEO of the Novo Nordisk Foundation. The foundation, which controls 77% of the company's voting shares, is responsible for distributing profits to benefit medical and scientific research.

Wertheim asked Krogsgaard how the company is dealing with its meteoric success and representing Denmark on the world stage.

“In some ways … we are more in touch with politicians (and) ministers than ever before,” he said.

“We hope that there will be more companies like Novo Nordisk. But right now it is the Novo Nordisk company that, as you can see, is driving a lot of the country’s prosperity.”

In Denmark, Novo Nordisk has created thousands of new jobs, “which is a lot in a small country,” said Krogsgaard.

“The risk is that it is a sector,” Wertheim told 60 Minutes Overtime. “There are dangers when a sector is so dependent for so much growth.”

Nokia

In 1999, producer Michael Gavshon and correspondent Bob Simon reported from another Nordic country, Finland.

Nokia, the Finnish mobile phone company, dominated the global mobile phone market.

At that time, 65% of Finns used cell phones, compared to only 25% of the population in the United States.

Simon asked then-CEO Jorna Ollila whether he thought Nokia was at the vanguard of a revolution.

“I think we’ve seen the first part of it. There’s more to come,” Ollila said.

At the peak of its success, Nokia's share of Finland's GDP was 4%. It remained the undisputed leader in the mobile phone industry until the late 2000s.

Then, in 2007, Apple changed everything when it launched the iPhone, and the smartphone era began.

Given the almost immediate high demand, competitors such as Google and Apple began to push Nokia out of the market with innovative smartphones.

In 2008, consumer demand for Apple's iPhone was huge. In the first weekend when the second iPhone was released, Apple sold 1 million units.

The demise of Nokia, along with the European debt crisis, had a significant impact on the Finnish economy.

From 2008 to 2017, around 25,000 Finns left the company. In 2012, Nokia's contribution to Finland's GDP was negative.

Risks for Novo Nordisk and Denmark

According to an analysis by Denmark's Danske Bank, Novo Nordisk is now responsible for almost half of the country's GDP growth.

The Danish economy could be at risk due to its dependence on one sector and one company.

“It’s not quite as dangerous as elsewhere. But there are dangers when a sector is so dependent for so much growth,” Wertheim said.

Wertheim spoke with Hanne Sindbaek, an independent Danish journalist who has written two books about the history of Novo Nordisk and its founders.

Wertheim asked what impact it would have on Novo Nordisk if drugs like Wegovy and Ozempic continued to become cheaper and insurers in the United States began subsidizing the drugs for millions of Americans.

“Well, it’s going to be very, very rich,” she said to Wertheim. “Here and there there could be competitors that get out of control.”

“But they were the first, and they are the biggest…they have a very good chance of being a leader in this area.”

However, there are ethical concerns about the drugs' high price, and some people who could benefit from them cannot currently afford them.

“Novo Nordisk (will) have these concerns. And there will be discussions about that in Novo Nordisk,” she told Wertheim.

The video above was produced by Will Croxton and Brit McCandless Farmer. It was edited by Sarah Shafer Preacher.